Traditionally, war has mainly been waged by two factions. There has occasionally been wars that involved more than two allied factions. The Three Kingdoms period in China is one example that was brought up in an online discussion on Stack Exchange, an online discussion board. The Three Kingdoms referred to the Shu, Wu, and Wei states, all of which were established after the fall of Han. This period of war was one of the bloodiest times in Chinese history. The leader of each of the states were all very ambitious, and fought against each other for their own goals.

However, this scenario of three mutual enemies was not a stable structure. The strength of the Wei quickly gave the Shu and Wu a reason to form an alliance, and for much of the war, the Shu and Wu states stayed allied against the stronger Wei state. For a very brief number of years, the two broke their alliance, and the three states again warred with each other. This unbalanced structure again broke down after four years as Shu and Wu reformed their alliance. With the two as allies and the Wei as a mutual enemy, the structure of the relationships became balanced again.